Katarina hung on the limb right
next to the bottom of the Christmas tree.
Her wings had become tangled in the string of lights when the child had
played with her right before bedtime.
Now every person in the house was asleep. It was time for all the Christmas ornaments to come to life.
Katarina
grabbed the string of lights and pulled herself free of both the limb and the
string of lights. She was careful
to leave her hook exactly where it was.
If she went exploring, she would need to be sure she could get back in
place before morning. Ornaments
that loose their hook sometimes end up on the floor where the cat can get
them. Katarina did not want that
to happen to her.
She
lowered herself onto the tallest present right under her branch. She had been so excited when the people
put that present under the tree during the day. She knew that with that present right under her branch, she
would be able to climb down to the floor.
This was the first time this Christmas season that she had been given
that opportunity, and she meant to make the most of it.
When
she reached the floor, the first place she went was the front door. Next to the front door the child had
left a raincoat and hat. Katarina
had watched the child pull them off and lay them there. Katarina rubbed the smooth surface of
the raincoat. She really liked the
rubbery feel of the boots. After a
few minutes, she made her way to the child’s room. The child had a castle Katarina wanted to explore. She had watched the child open that
present last year and had waited an entire year to go see it for herself.
The
castle loomed before her as she stood trying to decide where to go first. She decided to climb to the top of the
tower. From this point she could
see all of the child’s room. She
could see the child’s foot hanging over the side of the bed. Then she saw the cat’s tail swishing
over the side of the bed. The cat
was awake. Katarina very carefully
climbed down from the tower of the castle trying to make as little noise as
possible. Before she made it to
the bottom floor of the castle, she spotted the cat’s eyes staring at her
through one of the windows of the castle.
For a moment she stood frozen in place unable to move for fear. The cat simply stared at her swishing
his tail.
Finally
when she could stand it no longer, Katarina made a dash for the door of the
child’s room, but the cat cut her off.
Everywhere Katarina tried to run, the cat pounced in front of her. He obviously wanted to play with her
for a while before he tried to eat her.
Then Katarina dived under a baby doll blanket the child had left on the
floor. The cat pounced on the
blanket, but the blanket protected Katarina from the cat’s claws. Katarina remained as still as possible
even though the material made her itch.
She knew if she kept still long enough, the cat would lose interest and
go away. It seemed like an
eternity before the cat finally jumped up on the bed and started playing with a
toy the child had left on the bed.
Katarina
very slowly peeked out from under the blanket. By this time, she itched all over but still resisted the
urge to scratch. The cat was
looking the other way. Katarina
dashed out from under the blanket and hid behind a leg of the nightstand. The cat continued to play with the
toy. The door to the child’s room
was only a few feet from where she hid.
She waited until the cat became extremely involved with the toy and then
made a dash for the open door. She
ran as hard as she could back to the Christmas tree without looking back
once. If the cat was chasing her,
she really didn’t want to know it.
When
she reached the present under her branch, she climbed it with one big
bound. Then she climbed back onto
her limb and slowly lowered herself back onto her hook. She was home. As she drifted off to sleep, she wondered what wonders lay
in the presents now under the tree that the child would open tomorrow on
Christmas morn. However, she would
wait until next Christmas to go exploring again. She had had enough excitement for one Christmas season.
No comments:
Post a Comment